Resting Kobe now is right move for Lakers

Pau Gasol kept the ball away from Denver's Johan Petro early in the Lakers' loss Thursday night, but Gasol's two late-game turnovers were costly in a fourth quarter when a resting Kobe Bryant was sorely missed. DOUG PERSINGER, GETTY IMAGES

DENVER – As amusing as it was to see always earnest Andrew Bynum sitting at his locker before the game wearing his nerdy computer headset to learn Spanish from Rosetta Stone …

As refreshing as it was to see some sincere enthusiasm in the faces of longtime Lakers Luke Walton and Lamar Odom while this team actually cared enough to try really hard …

As much as Pau Gasol’s voice began to take on a Jan Brady “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” tone when asked one too many questions about Kobe Bryant not playing after Gasol had played and put up 26 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks …

Nothing from this Thursday night in Denver will be remembered, ultimately, except that Bryant had enough weakness and discomfort in a swollen right knee not to play. (Sorry, Pau.)

That’s because a month from now, maybe two, Bryant’s jumper will look as pretty as confetti falling from the rafters again. Or maybe it will be flat, his elevation won’t be quite right, his efficiency will be down and there will be no confetti for the Lakers this time around.

Either way, we’ll remember Phil Jackson and the Lakers did what they could to revive Bryant and this twice-surgically-repaired knee (2003 and ’06), and it worked or it didn’t. The ramifications are so monumental that it makes the gamble to sacrifice today for tomorrow easily worth it.

“We want him ready for the playoffs,” said Gasol, who was perfectly willing to answer the first time he was asked about Bryant not playing.

Yes, the Lakers sometimes have better ball movement without Bryant, but their entire late-game offensive plan is built on him creating shots for himself or others. Bryant’s teammates showed impressive competitiveness without him Thursday night but scored just seven points – and made just one field goal, an unassisted Jordan Farmar 3-pointer – in the last six minutes to blow a seven-point lead.

In the Lakers’ February loss to Boston without Bryant, Jackson didn’t understand Gasol’s back-breaking final turnover, trying to pass to Shannon Brown when Gasol could’ve shot. This time, Jackson threw more blame by citing two Gasol late-game turnovers, saying: “Pau exposed the ball.”

On the Lakers’ final chance against Denver, Gasol was out of the play, and Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom were disconnected from each other because each was trying to call on himself as the main man sans Kobe. So pretty much nothing happened the final play.

This is the only time for Bryant to rest. He figures to be back for the final games of the season: “We want to get in the rhythm of what we want to do,” Jackson said with the intention of building a little momentum right before the playoffs.

The fact that Jackson got Bryant to sit out is the latest testament to their relationship this time around. Instead of coming out and proving that a star of his magnitude refuses to accept three consecutive bad games, Bryant didn’t even play in this third game.

It’s a rather landmark concession to NBA old age for the ultimate warrior in Bryant.

There’s no way Jackson could’ve gotten Bryant to do it if he were en route to playing all 82 regular-season games because of the workmanlike pride Bryant feels in that accomplishment, but for the first time in three seasons Bryant already knows he won’t play every game.

That’s how much he has been playing: full 82-game marathons, followed by suicide sprints to the NBA Finals, each of the past two years with the Olympics squeezed in between … after playing all 82 only one previous time in 11 years in the league.

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